How to Help Your Employees Feel Peaceful About Change

When was the last time your company stood still for you? No changes in personnel. No changes in materials, products, services, or distribution channels. No changes in strategy.

As a leader, have you ever experienced a period of “no change?”

I haven’t.

When you Google “change management,” you get 75.2 million results. This indicates that moving people through change is an ongoing challenge for leaders. A formidable challenge. It doesn’t have to be. You can learn to lay a foundation that will support your team to always approach change with feelings of calm and peace.

The word peace comes from the Latin pax, meaning “compact, treaty, agreement.” Here are five agreements your team needs to hear from you (and see you deliver upon) so that they may feel peace in their hearts as change unfolds:

I will never let change be the “elephant in the room.”

Typically, leaders wait too long to talk with their team members about changes the company is undergoing. This is understandable. As the leader, you feel like it’s your responsibility to “handle” the change, and not burden team members with worrying about it.

But, here’s the truth. People know when their environment is shifting. They can feel it. Changes that you may think are subtle probably aren’t. Team members observe them and immediately assign meaning to them. Often, this meaning may not be accurate, causing needless stress in their hearts and undermining their peace of mind.

Don’t let change be the elephant in the room – the thing that everyone’s thinking about, but no one is acknowledging. Your workplace is a second home for your employees. They need and want to know what’s going on under their own roof!

I will always explain why change must occur now.

No one expects their job to stay the same forever. People know that change is a given in all parts of life, and that they’ve got to learn and develop in order to keep up.

Still, it’s hard to feel calm and peaceful while your workplace is transforming when you don’t know why it’s transforming. Give your people this understanding. Paint a picture of the marketplace demands, technological advances, and industry economics that are driving your company’s need for change.

Open up channels of communication, so that you can answer questions and ease the doubts and fears that are eroding peace in your workplace. When you do this, you will be surprised at the positive communication that flows back your way.

You’ll get fresh perspective. You’ll hear front-line ideas to improve productivity that people have wanted to act on for years. Through erasing uncertainty, you’ll not only help instill calm and peace; you’ll open a door of opportunity for every single person in your organization.

I will always be transparent about the potential impacts of change.

Change is not all sunshine and roses. There are risks. Everyone knows this.

So don’t sugarcoat the change your company is going through. You can be honest. Not only can your employees handle your honesty – they crave it. They can’t feel peace in their hearts without it.

If there is a chance that people may need to learn new skills in order to keep their jobs, tell them that. If there is a chance that the company may need to downsize in order to survive, be transparent about this potential outcome.

Again, your workplace is your employee’ second home. They spend more time there than in their “real” home. Please honor this. Respect it. Give people the facts, so that they can make their own thoughtful decisions about how to manage the risks they face. It’s impossible for people to feel blindsided and peaceful at the same time.

I will always support everyone in this organization to land on their feet on the other side of change.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of mass lay offs without notice or support. We’ve also heard about the 55 year-olds forced into early retirement and replaced with younger, cheaper, more tech-savvy replacements. These are glaring examples of organizations treating people like assets instead of human beings as change unfolds.

Yet, what about the less-glaring examples? The teams that get fragmented, the projects that get derailed, and the people who struggle to understand their roles on the other side of change?

You know that as a servant leader, you have a higher standard as you navigate transitions. It’s not just the new production line, the new software, or the new market entrance that’s important. It’s the well being of your people. Their peace of mind is the true measure of your change effort’s success.

Make the promise that you will do everything in your power to help people land on their feet – no matter what. Deliver on that promise. Demonstrate ‘this’ level of servant leadership, and you will lay a foundation of deep peace and calm in your company that will endure even during gut-wrenching change.

I will always do my best to chart our change journey.

Are we there yet?

If you’re a parent, you’ve heard this a million times. And if you’re a leader, you’ve said it to yourself as often, especially during periods of transition.

You may not know when the specific change that you and your employees are going through will be “over.” That’s okay. No one expects you to know everything. But they do need you to help them track progress and share what you think may be ahead.

This you can do!

You can even do this visually, with a timeline, a chart, or a photo slideshow of challenges you’ve overcome and change-related milestones you and your team have achieved, together. Creating a visual representation of your change effort and putting it in a place of prominence will serve your employees, the majority of whom are visual learners.

Fear springs from not knowing.

Each of the five agreements in this post are designed to provide knowledge, liberate people from fear, and allow peace and calm to flow through your organization.

When peace flows, people relax. They allow themselves to be themselves; re-engaging with their creativity and enthusiasm. They remember how resilient they really are.

When people aren’t saddled with fear, they face change with confidence and quiet strength.

The lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.

Psalm 29:11

In your organization, change isn’t on the horizon; it’s happening right now. Are you ready to extend the five promises above to your employees, to help them feel peaceful and calm within their ever-shifting environment?

About Mark Deterding

Mark Deterding is an author, speaker, consultant and the founder of Triune Leadership Services. With over four decades of experience directing companies and developing leaders, Mark created A Model of Servant Leadership parallel to the principles that Jesus himself illustrated. His greatest passion in working with organizations, businesses and individuals is seeing the impact servant leadership has on people’s lives and beyond.

Reader Interactions

Comments

This is very timely. My job just shifted to 40% operations/change management. We cannot grow fast enough to support the needs in the community. Prosci training was essential. The program provided a framework and research-backed data for what I do/know naturally. And I’m so incredibly excited.

What’s great about this article is the acknowledgment that we need to support staff through change. This is crucial-change happens one individual at a time.

Thanks so much for your very nice comments Amanda! You are certainly an expert in this area, and I love your comment about the understanding of “change happening one individual at a time”. You are an amazing blessing to all those you serve, as you help people navigate change! Blessings on your day.

Mark, love your blogs, and especially enjoy this topic of “peace with change”. As I strive to help administer the missing “peace” to various marketplace puzzles as well personal situations, all which involve some level of change, God’s Word so often reminds me to be thankful for challenging situations (where change may be in order), because an organization (and individual) can indeed endure change, and experience growth as a result. Thanks to one of the hardest times in my life some years ago, I made the biggest of changes, that is choosing to allow Jesus to be Lord of my life (yielding my will to His will). So glad His Holy Spirit (the ultimate source of peace), along with blogs like yours, helps me daily with this!

Al, thanks so much for weighing in this topic, it is so helpful! I love your observation of how much we can learn from challenging situations. And praise God for your life with Jesus!! You are a shining light in this world, and a true blessing to all those you serve. Blessings on your day!